


Completely Wrong

by ValmureEld



Series: Vita est in Sanguinem [2]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Former Lovers - Freeform, Gen, Heartbeats, Hurt/Comfort, Medical, Old Friends, Platonic Relationships, Reminiscing, Worry, and i'm tired, reassurance, this is impossible to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 06:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15261582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValmureEld/pseuds/ValmureEld
Summary: As his friend and as a medic Shani can't help both dreading and desiring the answer to the question about what truly happened in Rivia.





	Completely Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> For this fic, and my universe in general, assume the only time Shani and Geralt slept together was back in book cannon while she was a med student. Following that logic, I really don't think she would have had the chance to see and identify his pitchfork scars. 
> 
> This corresponds to BlueNeutrino's "Alternate Medicine" in her Heart of a Witcher series.

It was a warm night in the Chameleon and the atmosphere was perfect for catching up with old friends. For the first time since everything had settled down after the Hunt they were all in one place--Ciri, Geralt, Zoltan, Dandelion, Shani, Yennefer, Triss. Even Eskel, Lambert and Regis had made it.

There had been dinner and a lot of drinking before things had shifted a little and they’d all broken off. Lambert was in a losing battle with Dandelion and Zoltan in a game of strip Gwent--something Eskel was watching with immense amusement. Triss and Regis were wandering topics while Yennefer and Ciri were finally taking time to catch up by the fire. That left Shani and Geralt still at the mead, though both were barely sipping at that point.

Geralt wasn’t drunk, just content, and Shani was clear-eyed as well. Somehow their conversation had wandered all the way back to trying to remember when they’d stopped talking, and Shani had suddenly grown somewhat quiet. 

“We really didn't get to catch up on much before, did we?"

"Well. I had amnesia. Couldn't remember what there was to catch up on."

Shani laughed a little at that, but she still seemed troubled. "Geralt….I have to ask. Is it true?”

He frowned lightly, setting his empty mug aside and shifting on the bench, stretching his bad leg out and sighing. “Is what true?”

Shani glanced down, looking like she wasn’t sure she wanted to really know the answer. “Rivia,” she said finally.

Geralt’s eyebrows jumped a little and he closed his hand against the table. Shani saw his body language and immediately looked apologetic. “You don’t have to talk about it--I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing for me to ask right now.” She rest her head in her hand briefly before shaking it. “Really didn’t mean to ruin the mood.”

“No…” Geralt said slowly. “It’s okay. Only natural that you’d wonder but...yes.” He nodded, meeting her eyes. “Rivia happened.”

“And you remember?”

“I do now, yes.”

Shani looked torn between grief and amazement, and Geralt knew she was fighting the urge to ask more questions. As a medic, the concept of him having suffered such a grievous injury and lived to confirm it must be eating at her.

“I wasn’t sure what to believe,” she confessed, glancing at her mug and sighing before pushing it away. “But after everything that’s happened, everything we’ve all gone through--now that you have your memory back I just…had to know.” She shrugged, leaning her elbows on the table and hunching her shoulders a little. “I remember when Dandelion mentioned it and it didn’t sound like one of his embellishments. He was too upset to be making things up but it seemed impossible all the same.”

Geralt hummed. “It should have been.” Then, deciding she deserved to know as much as the rest of his friends did, he pulled his shirt aside enough to show the topmost scar.

Shani’s eyebrows jumped and she gasped, actually getting up and coming around to his side of the table. He moved his leg down so she could sit and she did, leaning close.

“That-- _that’s_ from Rivia?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“It is. There’s two more like it here and here,” he said, touching the other two marks through his shirt. Shani looked shell shocked and she reached a hand out before catching herself and glancing up at his eyes.

“I’m sorry, may I?”

“Sure.”

He let his shirt go and Shani shifted the fabric over with a gentle hand, using the other to probe carefully at the area. She treated it like a fresh wound and Geralt twitched reflexively. Her touch was so light it almost tickled.

“Not still wounded,” he said lightly. “You can push.”

She did, feeling carefully along his rib before daring to press against the puncture itself. Her brow was furrowed with concentration and she tilted her head, casting her eyes away like she was focusing.

Geralt had a feeling he knew what she was waiting for, and he wasn’t surprised to see her expression change to wonder when his heart nudged against her fingers.

“Wow…” she breathed, looking up at him again. Her eyes sought his face, brow slightly furrowed like she was looking at something she couldn’t quite comprehend. “Geralt--” her voice was somewhat distressed, and he was surprised to see her with sudden tears.

He reached up to brush one away without thinking and Shani pulled back in embarrassment.

He gave her a moment before: “You okay?”

“Yeah...it’s stupid I’m sorry,” she said, dashing away another tear and sniffing, composing herself quickly. “Just took me by surprise I didn’t realize that it had pierced--”

“My heart,” Geralt finished for her. She nodded, looking solemn.

She was quiet for a long moment, gaze cast into the table like she was lost in a memory. “I had a witcher die in my tent, during the war,” she admitted finally. “I didn’t think about it much until we ran into each other again, and when I was talking with Ciri earlier she mentioned a name. Coen?”

Geralt’s expression fell and he nodded. “Coen helped train Ciri. Spent a lot of time with us. I knew he must be gone but…” he shook his head. “I didn’t fully know how.”

“I’m sorry, Geralt,” Shani said softly. “He was pierced much the same way you were. His heart was ruined. We did everything we could but--” she shook her head.

“Not your fault. I didn’t survive because I’m a Witcher. I survived because Ciri is more powerful than any of us and she decided it wasn’t my time to go yet. Don’t beat yourself up over Coen.”

“I don’t think I’m beating myself up over him but it’s hard not to regret being unable to save him. Especially when I know that maybe--if he’d gotten to us sooner we could have. He was alive for a long time like that Geralt…” she said, shaking her head sadly.

Geralt nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I know.”

Shani looked at him quizzically before her eyes went wide and his implications clicked. “Oh... _Geralt_ …”

He waved a hand, shaking his head once. “I don’t actually remember much from that. I was in shock, too numb to realize what was happening.” He reached out a hand and turned the empty mug, just for something to occupy his discomfort. “From what the others have told me and the nightmares Yen still has…” his chest rose and fell with a steadying sigh “that’s probably for the best.”

Shani’s hand reached out and settled on his, steadying his nervous movements. “It is. And I’m sorry to bring you back to all this. Really.”

He looked at her and nodded. “Thank you, but it’s in the past. We beat the Hunt--I finally have my memories and my family back. That’s enough of the past controlling me.”

Shani nodded, still looking uncertain. Her brow twisted as her hand fell away from his, and for a while they sat in silence. Lambert had lost the game and was stalking off to bed in his underwear and Geralt smiled faintly at the display. Regis and Triss had disappeared and so had Ciri and Yennefer.

“You wishing you hadn't asked?” he said eventually. Shani considered the question with that same uncertain expression, but eventually she shook her head.

“No. I’m just glad to know you’re okay now?”

“Far as I know,” Geralt confirmed, glancing down at his own chest. “Figure after everything I’ve lived through since getting my memory back if there was something wrong with my heart I would have noticed. Or Yen and Regis would have.”

“Maybe...but you were under a lot of stress and sometimes old wounds can open back up. If there’s still a scar in your chest wall that probably means there’s scarring all the way down.”

“What could you do if there was something wrong?” he asked, his voice gentle. “I don’t need you worrying about me, Shani.”

“Too late for that I’m afraid,” she said, offering a pinched smile. “And I don’t know--but I’d have a lot more time to figure it out than I did for poor Coen.”

Geralt worked his jaw, nodding. “Alright, well,” he shifted his leg over the bench so he was straddling it and motioned for her to come closer. She raised an eyebrow but obeyed, and he pulled her into a strong hug. She laughed a little in her surprise and returned the hug before shyly taking the hint as his grip gentled and bending her head, closing her eyes as she rest her ear against his chest.

His heart was much like she remembered it. The sound had shifted just slightly, but it sounded no less loud or sure than it had a lifetime ago in Oxenfurt. She sighed, relief washing through her.

“Feel better?” he asked, and his voice resonated beautifully around his heartbeat.

She smiled, listening for a few rich moments more before lifting her head. She nodded as she pulled away, keeping her hands on his arms long enough to give his wrists a gentle squeeze of gratitude. “Thank you Geralt. I know it seems foolish for me to worry about you when you’re--well, basically built from the ground up to survive anything but--”

Geralt shook his head. “We’ve both lost too much lately. I understand. If I’m honest it’s nice that I still have people who care. There was a time when I thought Vesimir and Eskel were the only ones and would only ever be the ones. Vesimir, as usual, would be proud I was wrong.”

Shani smiled and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “You’re very wrong.”


End file.
